Cassin Young

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Cassin Young

Cassin Young (born March 6, 1894 in Washington, DC , † November 13, 1942 in the Solomon Islands , Pacific ) was an American officer and commander of several ships in the United States Navy . He reached the rank of captain (German counterpart: captain at sea ) and was awarded the Medal of Honor and the Navy Cross during his service .

Life

Young retired from the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis in June 1916 and received a use on the Battleship Connecticut until 1919 .

He was then transferred to the submarine weapon for a few years and commanded the R-23 and R-2 . In the mid to late 1920s he was on the command staff for naval communications in the US battle fleet of submarine weapons and in the naval academy.

From 1931 to 1933 he was used on the battleship New York and was then commander of the destroyer Evans . From 1935 to 1937 he served in the 11th Marine District and became commander of the 7th Connecticut Submarine Division .

At the beginning of the Second World War he was in the rank of commander (German frigate captain ), commanding officer of the workshop ship USS Vestal , one of three ships this use of the Pacific Fleet in Pearl Harbor .

On December 7, 1941, there was a surprise Japanese attack on the fleet in port. The Vestal lay right next to the battleship Arizona , was badly hit and listed. Young immediately took countermeasures and personally manned one of the Vestals' anti-aircraft guns . The Arizona finally received a direct bomb hit in the front main ammunition chambers, which sank the ship in a huge explosion.

The Vestal was also badly damaged by the detonation and Commander Young was thrown overboard. To save his ship, he swam back on deck through the burning oil and steered the Vestal , which was also burning, into shallow waters, where he left it stranded and thus saved it from sinking. For this commitment, he was honored with the Medal of Honor, the highest honor for bravery of the US armed forces. The award was presented to him by Chester W. Nimitz , Commander in Chief of the Allied Navy in the Pacific War.

In February 1942 he was promoted to captain and placed in command of the heavy cruiser San Francisco . The San Francisco was then used as the flagship of Task Force 64 at the Battle of Cape Esperance , where she was involved in the sinking of the Japanese heavy cruiser Furutaka .

In the subsequent naval battle of Guadalcanal on November 13, 1942, early in the morning there was a confusing battle at close range with a Japanese convoy. Cassin Young was hit by the Japanese battleship Hiei . He was posthumously honored with the Navy Cross, the highest naval award in the United States, while the San Francisco was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation .

Commemoration

A memorial plaque was erected at the cemetery in Mount Pleasant , South Carolina, and in 1943 the Navy put the destroyer USS Cassin Young, named after him, into service.

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personal data
SURNAME Young, Cassin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American officer
DATE OF BIRTH March 6, 1894
PLACE OF BIRTH Washington, DC
DATE OF DEATH November 13, 1942
Place of death at the Solomon Islands , Pacific